We take this opportunity to bid farewell to some of our investment team colleagues and announce a number of resultant promotions.
Chief Investment Officer Andrew Lapping will be leaving Allan Gray towards the end of this year, as his 20th year at the firm comes to a close. Andrew has decided to take a well-deserved break with the intention of exploring opportunities outside of investment management.
We are pleased to announce that Duncan Artus will take over the reins as chief investment officer from Andrew, effective 1 September 2020. Duncan is well known to those familiar with Allan Gray – enjoying the respect and trust of his colleagues and our clients. Duncan joined the firm in March 2001 and has been managing a portion of client equity and balanced portfolios since January 2005. With 20 years’ experience – 15 of those as portfolio manager at Allan Gray – Duncan is a well-versed and worthy successor.
Mark Dunley-Owen, who manages a portion of our clients’ stable and fixed interest portfolios, will hand over some of his responsibilities as he joins the team managing the Orbis Global Balanced Strategy at our sister company, Orbis. We say goodbye to Leonard Krüger, who manages a portion of the stable portfolios, as he pursues opportunities outside of Allan Gray.
Structured for succession
Departures create exciting opportunities for other investment team members. Our approach to succession planning ensures depth in the team and we have a strong bench to draw from.
In addition to Duncan’s promotion, we have expanded the portfolio management responsibilities of others in the team. In our equity, balanced and stable portfolios we have appointed three new portfolio managers: Rory Kutisker-Jacobson, Tim Acker and Sean Munsie. Varshan Maharaj, Rami Hajjar and Kamal Govan have also been promoted to portfolio managers and will focus on African and frontier market equities.
Andrew and Mark’s South African fixed interest portion of the balanced portfolios will be split between existing bond and money market portfolio managers Londa Nxumalo and Thalia Petousis, while Sandy McGregor will retain his existing responsibilities. Londa and Thalia will assume full responsibility for the Allan Gray Bond Fund and the Allan Gray Money Market Fund, respectively, which they currently co-manage with Mark.
The newly appointed portfolio managers have all been with Allan Gray for a number of years. Their demonstrated skill, dedication and passion for investments will be a benefit to our clients.
Primed for the future
Developing strong succession within our investment team has been a hallmark of our firm since its founding in 1973 and we congratulate our new portfolio managers on their promotions. We have every confidence that under Duncan’s leadership, our investment team will continue to excel. We remain committed to delivering strong investment performance and building your trust and confidence in us.
We thank Andrew, Mark and Leonard for their exemplary service and dedication and wish them well in their future endeavours.